(1) Field of the Invention
The invention pertains generally to electronic services provided to guests of a hospitality establishment over a local area network. More specifically, the invention relates to techniques for pairing and logging in mobile devices to gain access to electronic services provided over a local area network of a hospitality establishment.
(2) Description of the Related Art
To keep up with guest expectations, hospitality establishments such as hotels and resorts are increasingly required to provide high tech electronic services over a local area network. Examples of two popular services include Internet access, also referred to as high speed Internet access (HSIA), and integration of in-room electronic media devices with guests' personal mobile devices. HSIA allows a checked in guest to access the Internet from their personal mobile device(s) such as laptop computers and mobile phones. Integration of in-room electronic media devices with guest devices enables guests to perform various functions such as remote control and media content sharing from their personal electronic gadgets with the media devices (e.g., set-top boxes, televisions (TVs), speakers, etc.) located in their registered guest room.
In many cases, hospitality establishments only want to offer these services to authorized guests and endeavor to ensure security and privacy of guest data over the network. For example, users are often required to “login” to these services before gaining access.
An example of a login process for HSIA involves new users attempting to access websites on the Internet instead being redirected or otherwise caused to view a web-based login portal. At the login portal, the user must authenticate themselves as an authorized guest by entering their room number and last name so that the portal can confirm the user-entered data matches that of the currently registered guest of the room. Such authentication is often referred to in the industry as “PMS authentication” because it involves checking to ensure that the user-entered room number and last name match the registered guest information in the hotel's property management system (PMS). Alternatively, another type of authentication for HSIA referred to as “room detection” may be utilized where the user's network traffic is traced back to an originating network access node such as the Ethernet port in a specific room of the hotel thereby confirming that the user is an actual guest of the hotel because only an authorized room guest could enter the room and plug in to that port. Room detection is particularly well-suited for wired connections; however, a similar method may also be used with wireless access where the user's network traffic is traced back to a micro-coverage access point (AP) that only services a specific guest or meeting room. The login process employed at a particular establishment may also involve the user agreeing to terms and conditions and/or may involve the user paying for basic or upgraded service entitlements (e.g., bandwidth, public IP address, etc.). Only after a new user has successfully completed the login process at the login portal is the user's mobile device permitted to access the Internet via the hotel's LAN.
An example of a login process for integration of in-room electronic media devices with guest devices involves a device pairing process where the user's mobile device is paired to a specific in-room media device via a “connect code” (also sometimes referred to as a passkey) displayed by the specific media device. For example, each in-room TV in a hotel may be assigned a unique and randomized connect code. When a user in a particular room wants to pair their mobile phone with their in-room TV, they turn on the TV and use the TV's menuing system to find and access a “device pairing” screen where the TV's unique connect code is displayed onscreen. The user then runs an app 140 or opens a particular web URL on their mobile device that has an input field for the user to enter a connect code so that the pairing process can be performed. By entering into their mobile phone the same connect code as is displayed by the on-room TV, the hospitality media system confirms that the user is an authorized guest because only an authorized guest would be able to enter the guest room in order to see the connect code displayed on the TV. The media system then pairs that mobile phone to that particular in-room TV and the guest can thereafter control the TV using the user interface on their phone or share media such as videos, pictures and music from their mobile phone to their in-room TV. Only after the user has completed this pairing process is the user's mobile device permitted to operate and share content with the in-room TV. Other in-room media devices can be paired with the user's device in a similar manner.
A problem with the above login approaches is that they are separate and unrelated to each other as they pertain to different, unrelated services. However, it is very likely that many guests of a hospitality establishment may wish to enjoy all entertainment services provided over the hotel's network. For example, again taking HSIA and in-room device integration (remote control and media sharing) as examples, a guest may wish to both surf the Internet from the guest's mobile phone and stream personal media files from the mobile phone to the in-room TV in the guest's assigned room. In this situation, the guest must perform two disjoint login processes: a first at a login portal to gain Internet access on their mobile phone, and a second to pair their mobile phone with a specific media device at the hotel so that they can control that media device and share media content from their mobile phone. To increase user convenience, it would be beneficial to facilitate cross logins between these different network services offered at a hospitality establishment.